As the Block and Fall Cocktail calls for “Anis del Oso or Absinthe”, I’m going to assume a blanche absinthe, like Kubler, is a fair substitution here. Perhaps Anis del Oso is a dry style Anis. I added the mint tip, just to give the camera something to focus on, though it also brings a pleasant brightness to the scent of the cocktail.

Not much difference between the Pansy Cocktail and Pansy Blossom. Slightly less Grenadine and Angostura in the Blossom, making it a bit less murky in color.

On the previous post someone pointed out the color wasn’t dissimilar to the dark center of the pansy flower.

Another possible reading of the name comes up on the pansy wikipedia entry:

“In William Shakespeare’s play A Midsummer Night’s Dream, the juice of a pansy blossom (“before, milk-white, now purple with love’s wound, and maidens call it love-in-idleness”) is a love potion: “the juice of it, on sleeping eyelids laid, will make a man or woman madly dote (fall in love) upon the next live creature that it sees.” (Act II, Scene I see also: Oberon at II, i).”

There’s a definite parallel there, between Absinthe’s alleged aphrodisiac properties and those ascribed to the pansy blossom.

Again, if you like Absinthe and are into high proof booze, this isn’t a horrible cocktail. I’ll take it over Jägermeister any day. Still, there are better uses for these ingredients.

This post is one in a series documenting my ongoing effort to make all of the cocktails in the Savoy Cocktail Book, starting at the first, Abbey, and ending at the last, Zed.